“It sends a message to other teams,” declared Djed Spence. “We can beat any team.” If the message last season was that Tottenham Hotspur could lose to any team, perhaps it has been flipped. Although, some might say, any Tottenham team can beat Manchester City. Their domestic dominance may be over but in, recent years, City have lost to Spurs sides under the auspices of Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, Antonio Conte, Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank and even Cristian Stellini.
Typical Tottenham, then, even if the phrase could have other connotations. Saturday’s terrific display against former champions had the feel of a mission statement; not just that Spurs could win, but how they could. They were separated by 14 places last season but 17th beat third. Spence has his sights set on a top-four finish. “Of course, there’s no reason [why not], if we perform like that week in, week out,” he added.
The performance made it seem a realistic aim. To do so, however, would fly in the face of recent history. Two decades ago, David Moyes’ Everton finished 17th one season, fourth the next. No one has done so since. There has been a more spectacular rise in the meantime, Leicester going from 14th to first, but there has been a certain familiarity about the top of many a Premier League table.
Perhaps Tottenham added a volatility to the division, their slump last season, and Manchester United’s simultaneous descent to 15th, proving far worse than seemed feasible. Should each return to more usual abodes, it might be a reaction to startling underachievement. There could be a sense of normal service being resumed.
Maybe the transfer window is an indication of the established order reasserting their authority. Newcastle missed out on players signed by Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. Tottenham were gazumped by Arsenal for Eberechi Eze. United and Spurs both signed a player – Bryan Mbeumo and Mohammed Kudus – from a club who finished above them. Spurs hired a manager from a club who finished above them.
If Frank disturbed the natural pecking order with Brentford and is charged with restoring it now, it would still be some feat. Even if last season was an artificial low, teams rarely improve their points tally by about 30 in a year. Losers don’t just become winners.
A couple of years ago, in the heady days of a start under Postecoglou that featured eight victories and two draws in 10 games, their fans chorused: “We’ve got our Tottenham back”. There were contrasting choruses in the closing minutes at the Etihad Stadium: one calling for chairman Daniel Levy to go, another that Spurs were top of the league.
Which, five hours later, they were not. The verdict on Frank’s Tottenham may only come at the end of his reign. Postecoglou’s Spurs were consistently good at the start, consistently bad in the Premier League at the end and consistently inconsistent in the middle.
The early evidence is that they have been imbued with a new ethos. A flexibility has replaced a self-defeating dogma. “He’s a manager who will switch up,” said Spence. “I guess it depends what team you play, you change the tactics. And you saw [at City], you saw against Paris Saint-Germain he was capable of doing that.”
There is an attention to detail. “There’s been a lot of meetings, but I like that; meetings every day,” said Richarlison. “I’m improving the tactical part.”
There are players benefiting from regime change, the Brazilian striker among them. “Since I got here, every time the transfer window opens, my name is circled as one who could leave, going back to Brazil or wherever,” added Richarlison. “But I’ve always been focussed on Tottenham and I’ve never had a conversation about leaving.”
There are a couple of signings who have had an immediate impact. Kudus got two assists against Burnley on his first Premier League start. Joao Palhinha scored at City, but his real value lies in his ability to recover possession. “He’s a machine, he flies into tackles,” said Spence. There was a common-sense element to Palhinha’s arrival on loan from Bayern Munich: Frank addressed a shortcoming in his squad. There is also an aspirational element. Even while frustrated in attempts to recruit Morgan Gibbs-White and Eze, he has brought in the kind of proven performers he could not entice to Brentford.
There was a glimpse of Frank’s charismatic man-management. As Spence spoke in the bowels of the Etihad Stadium, his manager walked past, tapped him and said: “He played well, guys”. Spence may be in a structure where that excellence can be rewarded. “With the defence, if you keep clean sheets it wins games,” he said; it is orthodox thinking, but there were times when Postecoglou’s Spurs seemed to eschew it. But Frank, Brennan Johnson said, “respects defending”.
Perhaps the paradox of Frank’s Tottenham is that he seems to be making a team out of keeping with the club’s identity – more solid, more streetwise – to take them back to where they used to be. If Spurs go from 17th to fourth, they could show the new unpredictability of the Premier League. And yet they could be restoring predictability.
